ISIS Member Looks for a New Connections On LinkedIn

Sabrina is the editor in chief for TINYpulse news. She's dipped her toes into various works of writing — from retail copywriter to magazine editor. Her work's been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg BNA, and Tech.co.

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It seems like everyone is on LinkedIn these days, and we mean everybody. It may be that this has happened before and we didn’t know about it, but The Australian reports this week on a member of ISIS whose LinkedIn profile includes his current position in the Islamic State.

The 43-year-old man’s name is Muhammed Daniel, formerly Mark John Taylor, and he hails from Sydney, Australia. He’s an “Education Management Professional,” according to his profile. Daniel wants potential employers to know that, “I’m loyal, disciplined, hardworking and have a large range of skillsets!”

In his LinkedIn profile, Daniel lists his current position as a primary-school teacher since October 2014, teaching grammar and using hand puppets in his lessons. He seems to be located in Raqqa, the city in northern Syria where ISIS is headquartered.

According to the profile, “Living in the heart of the Islamic State is a good experience and I encourage others to come and see for themselves. There’s no danger here and a great place to bring up the family. Except Western Jet fighters that always drop bombs on Civilians!”

Daniel says he was a volunteer fighting in the Syrian war before switching sides to join the terror organization in 2014. Prior to ISIS, he lists a position as an English tutor in Indonesia and time in the New Zealand military, whose rejection of his re-enlistment application is what led him to the Syrian army. It’s not clear if this coincided with New Zealand branding Daniel a terrorist after he was deported from Pakistan on his way to Waziristan where the Taliban are based.

It’s impossible to know whether this LinkedIn profile is one man’s attempt to connect, of just more disturbing evidence of how ISIS looks for recruits. But it certainly demonstrates how central the networking site has become.

Sabrina is the editor in chief for TINYpulse news. She's dipped her toes into various works of writing — from retail copywriter to magazine editor. Her work's been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg BNA, and Tech.co.